lwood

I just noticed someone signed up for me based on my knitting babble, at least, one assumes so with a handle like

knittingwoman

So, if the, like, five to nine of you who care would like to join me here, that'd be great.

Having shown off My First Sock, then making its made, then going forth and creating:

The pattern "Best Foot Forward" from Knit Socks! in Lorna's Laces Shepherd Sock in Blackwatch:

...which was going to

erynn999, until I found la chausette juste for her--but then I discovered that those were, in fact, The Rightest Socks for a guest, who really needed "green for the Tree, blue for the Sea, and grey for the Mists between" after her trip to Muir Woods and Beach.

Do you like plants, yet have trouble with trees?
Allow us to take you on a guided tour of Muir Woods, Embassy of the Redwood Nation, and we will hook you up with some of the chattiest trees on and in the Earth! End your day with a splash at Muir Beach! Our trained guides will ensure that you are protected from dorky tourists and do not take the Long Swim! Sign up today!

erynn999's Right Sock is "Friday Harbor" from Knitting on the Road. Friends, with a title like that, I was nigh-obligated to buy this book, but I'm glad I did, it covers a broader range of technique than Knit Socks!, with more consistent editing and a spiral binding for the laying flatness.

"Consistent editing": As a sometime layout editor of ever-technical bent, I will notice when you use different wording to describe the same thing, e.g., a square toe. Woman! Cut and paste, this will comfort your readers. Or at least me, but I'm a reader! Also, please to spank your editor--at least I hope this was their doing--for scattering basic hints throughout the book. This is not fiction. You are not doing us any favours by sparing the expository lump. This is an instructional book, it is ALL expository lump! Putting "how to use reinforcing yarn" a hundred pages away from "here is when to use reinforcement yarn" is not a kindness unto the newbies. Smack yourself with a wet noodle forthwith.

(

lferion has been nodding along throughout this section, I can tell. I hooked her at "Mists" and have had her right through "sometime layout editor" and now she is giggling.)

These were, however, only mildly annoying bobbles and do not detract from overall enjoyment of Knit Socks!. For example, where the layout people won were in the clever use of color-codes in the actual pattern directions, so you knew that you must be on the right sock because the page background is tan (cyan, etc).

Knitting on the Road does not have these problems, but is somewhat less newbie-friendly. KS starts out with a newbie-friendly sock, then leads you through several beginning and intermediate patterns afterward--KotR is intended for a somewhat higher level of skill, and introduces some fun techniques, like the Latvian twist that I, who am more familiar with Marvel Comics than Baltic Countries, keep thikning of as a "Latverian" twist.

D'y'know what that gets you?

I'll tell you:

DOOM WILL STEAL SUE STORM'S SOCKS, AND WITH THEM WILL RULE THE WORLD!

(Shout out to

camwyn, yo)

Next, having obtained most excellent yarn and needles for really, really cheap from KnitPicks, I assayed "Conwy" from KotR, but didn't notice the decreases, so to the frog pond with it.

Then I tried no fewer than three times to comprehend Fair Isle, which, when I finally got it, I realized that "an average sock for a grownup" needed 96 st around on sz 1 needles. Rrrrrrrrrrriip.

I will return to that later.

For now, lo, I am back to shawls. In lace. I found an excellent price on cobweb-weight smooth wool at a Local Yarn Store: $15 for I-shit-you-not a mile of the stuff, any color you like so long as it's white or black, pity I spaced the name. 8-P

Next project, the Kimono Shawl from Folk Shawls (another devotional project) and then, when I feel flush enough to lay down $70 for two skeins of seaweed yarn (OMG seaweedyarn!), a triangular shawl in the Birch pattern (in ROWAN 34) for Frigga, as my former Frigga shawl has, apparently, gone walkabout. Bah.

However, my prime knitting time is my commute, which is being eaten by a short story instead just now, so the Ladies will simply have to wait. 8-P

Happily, they're a pair of Ladies who are good at waiting...

There, that's the state of my yarn. Enjoy!

-- Lorrie